


Love at Lively Latte

by fuskar



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluffy, coffee shop AU, nonbinary!sirius, trans!remus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23792287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuskar/pseuds/fuskar
Summary: Remus works at the cafe Lively Latte. Sirius is a regular. Fluff ensues.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 6
Kudos: 41





	1. Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This is my first real try to write something chaptered, but imma try to keep it up! I'm excited about this (very cheesy and stereotypical) au.

The sun stood high on the sky above Lively Latte when Remus started his shift that morning. He was in an unusually good mood which he reckoned was due to the unexpected weather, but he was far from complaining; with the sun shining nothing could sour his mood today. 

As Remus opened the door he was welcomed by the familiar smell of newly brewed coffee and fresh baked goods that always seemed to put a smile to his face. From the back of the café, in the kitchen, he could make out the tell tale sounds of his colleague, and best friend, Lily. He took the few steps to behind the counter and popped his head into the kitchen to say a hello to his friend before starting to prep the counter for the customers that were bound to begin dropping in any moment now.

At Lively Latte the days sort of blended together. The daily routine had a habit of staying the same no matter what day it was and nothing unexpected tended to happen. Remus was actually kind of pleased with that; he knew what to expect when coming to work and that was a comfort to him. He knew what to do and had fairly easy tasks that he could manage. Simply put: he liked his job.

Remus could hear the door open and looked up, settling into his customer service role. The first thing he noticed was hair. A lot of hair. Then he noticed the lad underneath the hair as well. As soon as he saw the man he couldn’t help but wish Lily was at the counter instead of him as the customer was the spitting image of her type. But alas, she was on baking duty and he was set to counter duties so he could do nothing else but put a smile on his face and greet the customer.

“Hello, welcome to Lively Latte! See anything tempting for the wonderful sunny morning?” While Remus talked the man grinned and tilted his head while quite obviously eyeing Remus, who was starting to get a little bit flustered, up and down. His eyes caught the pride pin Remus proudly wore on his apron and for a second Remus got scared, before the man’s grin widened.

  
“You know? I think I do!” He pulled out his phone and started typing, “But not for myself. I’m just gonna call my friend and see if they want anything.”

Remus was a bit confused but shook it off, nodded with a smile, and then turned to a shelf behind him to organize the coffee mugs. 

“Hey, come down to Lively Latte, I think you’d quite like their sortiment,” Remus could hear the man say as he was organizing, “Yeah, yeah, I know, just- no just come down here.”

Just as Remus was about to leave the counter to go get some more clean mugs the man cleared his throat and laughed a little bit.

“I’m sorry about that,” Remus turned to him and lightly shook his head with a smile on his lips, “Anyway I’ll take a, uhm, a vanilla iced latte, thank you”

“Coming up! Anything else to go with your latte?” The customer shook his head and so Remus began preparing the espresso machine to start the drink. 

“I’m James by the way,” the man said and Remus smiled surprised.

“I’m Remus, pleasure to meet you James!” 

“So, how long have you worked here then, Remus?”

Remus chuckled as he was not used to such talkative customers, though he had nothing against it and then said, “well, I guess I officially started working here about two years ago?” James nodded and furrowed his brow.

“How come I’ve never seen you here before then? I come here all the time. Me and my friend we live just up the street and your iced lattes are to die for!” 

“Hm, I don’t know? I usually just work Thursday through Sunday, maybe you’ve just managed to miss me,” Remus moved on to make the rest of the drink in a glass before asking, “To stay or to go?”

“To stay, thank you,” James said before continuing, “Huh, you’re right, I think we tend to go here at the beginning of the week, uni you know?”

“Ah, I can imagine, sometimes just working here makes you crave that sweet caffeine, so can imagine how tough uni has to be,” as he was talking James lifted an eyebrow.

“You don’t go to uni? How come?” James said before quickly backtracking, “Sorry, that’s none of my business, forget I asked.”

Just when Remus was about to reassure James that there was no hard feelings, the door opened again and he looked up to see one of the most beautiful people he had ever seen in his entire life. He could feel himself staring so he lightly shook his head once and then smiled towards the new customer before adding the last ingredient to James’s drink.

“Sirius, you made it!” James grinned, “Remus, this is Sirius. They’re the friend I was talking about.”

“You’ve been talking about me?” Sirius scowled before walking up to the counter next to James and sitting down on one of the bar stools. 

James chuckled and took the drink from Remus’s hand when he held it out to him. He took a sip and grinned.

“Just as good as usual,” he said to Remus as he pulled out some money from his pocket and turned to Sirius, “Just said the usual you know, how you’re a miserably single queer looking for a partner to get a dog with and take long walks on the beach together!”

Sirus got redder and redder with each word that came out of James’s mouth and they looked up at Remus, almost scared.

“I am _not_ looking for a partner to get a dog with and take long walks on the beach, thank you very much,” they said through clenched teeth. Remus couldn’t help but both feel sorry for the person and at the same time take pleasure in the teasing.

“But you agree that you’re a miserably single queer at least?” He smiled a lopsided smile and couldn’t help but chuckle. Sirius looked at him for a moment in silence.

“I guess,” they finally said before turning to James, “Who’s your new barista friend?”

“This is Remus,” James gestured toward Remus, almost spilling his drink at the same time, “has worked here for about two years, Thursdays through Sundays and makes a mean iced latte.”

Sirius crossed their arms and eyed Remus up and down with a sceptical look in their eyes. They turned to James and then back to Remus, narrowing their eyes.

“Prove it.”

Remus nodded and started on a iced latte for Sirius with determined movements. No one spoke while Remus was making the drink, the only sounds coming from him working, James slurping on his own drink, and the occasional slam or swear from the kitchen. When Remus was done with the drink he silently handed it over to Sirius, who took a small sip. Remus had never been so nervous about anyone tasting something he had made before and he looked at Sirius with suspense.

“To die for,” Sirius said in a voice so void of emotion that Remus did not dare believe them before James excitedly grinned and nodded his head.

Remus did not know what came over him but he pumped his hand in the air and quietly shouted victory noises before saying, “I’m approved by the apparent regulars! Now I can retire happy!” All three started to grin and those grins turned to chuckles and soon enough all of them were bent over laughing.

When they had all calmed down James looked at Remus with a wide grin and said, “Sirius, I think our caffein needs on the weekends just went way up!”


	2. Self Pity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woopsie it's been a while. But guess who just wrote 2 (kinda short but whatever) chapters and is totally gonna write more? This queer right here! Hope you like it<3

Sirius never considered themself as an especially romantic person. Mostly they just slept around; found someone attractive, spent a night together, then never saw each other again. That was usually Sirius style; it was the easiest way not to get hurt. And yes, they knew it was a defence mechanism but to be frank, they didn’t care. It had worked for 22 years and Sirius was sure it would work many years to come. 

Though, that did not stop the unbearable weight that always settled around Sirus’s heart as soon as they saw a happy couple walking around, carefree, holding each other's hands. And it sure as hell did not stop that little voice in the back of their head that whispered:  
“You are never going to have that, no one would ever have you.” Sirius hated that little voice.

Orion and Walburga Black had not set a very good example for the young Sirius. The only ‘love’ they had to relate to was the love between two people who did not possess even a drop of positive feelings towards each other. They had married simply out of politics and obligations. 

For years Sirius was so afraid of ending up like their parents, and it was not an empty fear. Sirius was the oldest child of Orion and Walburga and thus the, so called, heir of the family business and from what they could gather even from a young age, that family business did not lean to the legal side of things. Nonetheless they were set up to be married even before they could walk and their parents tried to raise them to become the perfect child, and the perfect heir. 

Of course that did not succeed.

Sirius had known from a young age that they were not what their parents expected of them, both as an heir and as a son. They were always a disappointment to them and when they finally realised why they did not like to be called their parents "son" they knew that nothing good could come from that. Plus there was the problem where they liked to fool around with boys. When one fateful day they were caught with their hands down a boy's pants and their tongue in the same boy's throat it went as horrible as expected. Thank god for James though as the boy and his parents took Sirius in and took care of them when their own family would not. All that was in the past though, but Sirius still thought about it from time to time. Especially when they had a bad day. And everytime they thought about it they were so grateful for James. They did not know where or who they would be today if James hadn’t saved them that day 6 years ago. 

Today was a bad day and Sirius was laying in bed all alone and miserable. It was one of those days when they felt completely unlovable both because of who they were but also because they were "they" and not "he". During their "out" years as non binary they had not found one single person who accepted them for them and wanted to pursue anything longer. So they turned to sleeping around just to get a small taste of being close to someone. Even though they say, and think, that they like that life, sometimes reality hits you like a truck and the truth was that Sirius hated being lonely. But they knew that no one would want a serious relationship with them so they just had to suppress that lonely feeling and deal with it. But sometimes that is not as easy as its sounds. And today was one of those days. 

During their pity fest James decided to try and cheer them up with some of their favourite coffee, and while laying silent in their bed they got a call from James. When they got down to the cafe they instantly knew that they were in trouble. Because behind the counter stood the most handsome person Sirius had ever seen, and they knew that they would soon fall head over heels for that person if they were given a chance. That notion scared them because they knew that the person would never love them back.

Easy banter back and forth only made Sirius more intrigued and they thoroughly hoped they would get a chance to get to know Remus better, and perhaps someday, maybe, get closer and intimate, at least for a little while. It was all Sirius could ever hope for. But after that first meeting in the cafe they knew that this was the beginning of something. If that something would be good, or bad, or devastating they did not know. The only thing Sirius knew for sure was that they wanted to see more of Remus.


End file.
